BKMT READING GUIDES

The Organ Broker: A Novel
by Stu Strumwasser

Published: 2015-05-05
Hardcover : 296 pages
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The Organ Broker, named one of five finalists for the 2015 Hammett Prize for literary excellence in the field of crime writing (winner TBA in October of 2016), is the thrilling story of an underground black market organ dealer known as ?New York Jack.” For eighteen years Jack has been ...
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Introduction

The Organ Broker, named one of five finalists for the 2015 Hammett Prize for literary excellence in the field of crime writing (winner TBA in October of 2016), is the thrilling story of an underground black market organ dealer known as ?New York Jack.” For eighteen years Jack has been a ?transplant tourism director,” sending wealthy Americans and Europeans in need of kidneys and other organs to third world countries where they would buy them from transplant centers on the take. The death of a client and a newfound relationship lead to a crisis of conscience as he is forced to choose between a two million dollar commission?and participating in a murder. Jack races to South Africa, Brazil, and beyond, just one step ahead of his adversary and the FBI, in search of one small act of redemption.

As a disaffected youth in the late eighties, Jack Trayner entered the criminal world, selling coke when he needed money to pay his way through college. Although he later graduated from law school, an opportunity to earn easy money eventually seduced him into the bizarre and illegal black market for organs?a business that some consider horrendous and a small number of others deem to be heroic. The dual nature of this business assuaged Jack’s guilt and allowed him to flourish, yet the death of a client makes what he is doing all too real. The Organ Broker represents Jack’s confession.

The international black market sale of organs is very real and operates at this very moment behind closed hospital doors in many cities all around the world. It is a world that most people are only vaguely aware exists, and few of us know much, if anything, about, until now?in the pages of the confession of New York Jack.

Skyhorse Publishing, as well as our Arcade, Yucca, and Good Books imprints, are proud to publish a broad range of books for readers interested in fiction?novels, novellas, political and medical thrillers, comedy, satire, historical fiction, romance, erotic and love stories, mystery, classic literature, folklore and mythology, literary classics including Shakespeare, Dumas, Wilde, Cather, and much more. While not every title we publish becomes a New York Times bestseller or a national bestseller, we are committed to books on subjects that are sometimes overlooked and to authors whose work might not otherwise find a home.

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Excerpt

Chapter 1: Account Management

I’ve had many last names over the years, but my first name has always been Jack. That makes it easier to remember who I'm supposed to be. I’ve been selling organs—mostly kidneys—on the black market for about eighteen years. Most of the business takes place overseas so the industry has come to be known as “Transplant Tourism”—and I’m the cruise director. ... view entire excerpt...

Discussion Questions

1. If you needed a life-saving kidney, and could afford the $150,000 fee, would you buy one from a black market broker if the alternative was a fifty percent chance of dying on a waiting list?

2. Is Jack a good man?

3. What should the government do to end the organ shortage crisis in America (that kills twenty-one people a day)?

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by Chriss G. (see profile) 07/30/19

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